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1st Session

FORTIFICATIONS AT THE MOUTHS OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

RESOLUTION

OF THE

LEGISLATURE OF LOUISIANA,

Asking that the fortifications at the mouths of the Mississippi, be completed and mounted.

JUNE 12, 1841.

Referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, and ordered to be printed.

WHEREAS the commercial importance of New Orleans, its situation as the great outlet from all the Western States, the inadequate means of defence on the numerous approaches to it from the Gulf, and the remembrance of the events which closed the last war, would, in case of hostilities with a foreign Power, all join to invite the earliest and most violent aggression from an enemy, and should therefore lead us to prompt and energetic preparations for defence:

Be it therefore resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana in General Assembly convened, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be requested earnestly to ask of that body that liberal appropriations should be made, for completing the fortifications at and near the mouths of the Mississippi, for purchasing and mounting on them the guns destined for their defence, for the construction of steam vessels of war to protect the coast and inlets and co-operate with the fortifications and troops, and for the collection of a sufficient quantity of arms, ammunition, and other supplies, at convenient depots in the neighborhood, to insure the protection of this important point.

And be it further resolved, &c., That the Governor be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolution to our Senators and Representatives in Congress.

Approved, March 8, 1841.

WM. DEBUYS,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

FELIX GARCIA,
President of the Senate.

A. B. ROMAN,

Governor of the State of Louisiana.

1st Session.

LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA.

RESOLUTIONS

1

OF THE

LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA,

Responsive to those of South Carolina on the subject of controversy between the States of Maine and Georgia.

JUNE 12, 1841.
Read and laid upon the table.

The Committee on Federal Relations to whom was referred certain resolutions of the Legislature of South Carolina in relation to the Georgia and Maine controversy, have had the same under consideration, and beg leave to report :

That after a careful examination of the facts and circumstances set forth in the preamble of said joint resolutions connected with feloniously stealing and carrying away the slave Atticus by Daniel Philbrook and Edward Kilbron from the State of Georgia, and transporting him to the State of Maine, and the refusal of the Executive of the State of Maine to surrender said Philbrook and Kilbron, fugitives from justice, upon demand made by the Governor of Georgia, pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Constitution, they have come to the conclusion that the demand made was legal and proper, that the right was clear under the Constitution, and the refusal to surrender was inconsistent with the constitutional obligations of a State: they therefore concur in the following resolutions of said State, and recommend their adoption by the General Assembly of this State:

Resolved, 1st, That it is the duty as well as the right of any State to insist on the faithful observance of the Federal Constitution by each State in the Union.

Resolved, 2d, That to define crimes and felonies within its jurisdiction is an incident to the sovereignty of each State, and that no other State can question the exercise of that right.

Resolved, 3d, That to demand the surrender and removal of fugitives from justice is, by the Constitution, a right, and the arrest and surrender a duty. The denial or impairment of this right is inconsistent with the constitutional obligations of a State and subversive of the peace and good government of the other States.

Resolved, 4th, That the right hasbeen impaired, if not denied, by the authorities of Maine, and that this State shall never consent that any State shall become an asylum for those who are fugitives from the justice of other

States.

Resolved, 5th, That this State will make common [cause] with any State of this Confederacy in maintaining its just rights under the guaranty of the Constitution of the United States; and should the obligations of this instrument be disregarded by those whose duty it may be to enforce them, it will take council of its co-States of this Confederacy, having similar interests to protect and similar injuries to redress, in devising and adopting such measures as will maintain, at every hazard, these rights, and that property, which the obligations of the compact of Union, cancelled, as it then will be, as to us, have failed to enforce.

Resolved, 6th, That the Executive of this State be requested to transmit to the Executive of the several States to be laid before their respective Legislatures, to the President of the United States, and to our Senators and Representatives in Congress, a copy of this report, and of these resolutions.

J. T. F. COTTRELL.

President of the Senate.
R. A. BAKER,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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Responding to resolutions of Connecticut, on the protective policy of the

United States.

: :

JUNE 12, 1841.
Read and laid upon the table.

Preamble and resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama, responsive to certain resolutions of the State of Connecticut, in favor of the protective policy.

Certain resolutions of the State of Connecticut have been communicated by the Governor of this State to this General Assembly, agreeably to a request contained in said resolutions, which express sentiments in favor of what they designate the "protective policy of our Government," and contain a request to the Senators and Representatives in Congress from said State, to resist, by all constitutional means, every attempt to destroy or impair said policy, and to use their exertions to procure the passage of such laws as will effectually protect the labor of this country from the policy and legislation of foreign Governments, the said resolutions further signify that it is the wish of our sister State to obtain from us an expression of our sentiments on the subject to which her said resolutions relate.

It becomes us in courtesy under such circumstances to make answers which we proceed respectfully to do as follows:

We presume we properly comprehend the State of Connecticut as intending by the words, "protective policy of our Government" in her aforesaid resolutions a protective tariff, and by the words "labor of this country," the manufacturing labor of this country. So understanding our sister State, we cannot forbear expressing our surprise and regret to find that she should feel it incumbent on her to press this fruitful source of discord and distraction upon the attention of Alabama and the South at this time, two years in advance of the expiration of that "compromise" which has for a period allayed the fierce and angry passions to which the " protective policy," had heretofore given rise. But as she has thought proper to call upon us for our sentiments on this subject, we proceed to give them fully embodied in the following resolutions, the principles of which we would kindly but firmly admonish our sister Connecticut, that we are determined to maintain at every hazard.

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